~I am super excited and a little nervous (I still have a few weeks to get more nervous) about being on fave crafts radio on blog talk radio. I will remind you to listen again, I am sure!
I started with this apron because I wanted to compare the make time with the new design.( which turns out was even more than I thought) Also I wanted to really pour over an apron to get my feet wet so to speak. 
I had not made one of these designs since the summer, so I felt a bit deprived and really
the bottom layer is a cotton (linen like) material with a shear cotton vintage fabric attached ( the floral). 
The vintage buttons are decorative and the tie can go in the front or back. It has some beautiful details with vintage materials. This apron is the only one of these three that is still available. I will post it in my shop , in the next day or so. If anyone is interested you can send me and email or leave me a comment with your contact info.
The first step is to create yardage from scraps. I absolutely love doing this; I just pull out the boxes of scraps and start hunting. I build a pile of scraps that I would like to see as a yard of fabric and then I put them all together.(insert up and coming tutorial here) then I find a backing fabric that will be all one piece and compliment the patchwork( often times recycled linens)
This double sided apron consists of a front panel cut from patchwork made from vintage and new fabrics all in purples and greens. The pocket is in the shape of a heart and cut from a lovely vintage scrap.
The back panel is made from recycled ticking(love). Putting all these fabrics together gives this soft sweet apron a french country feel of . It is all cotton fabricand mostly vintage and recycled. It ties in the front or back.
In this version of my new pattern the front panel is still a patchwork of fabrics but I am more deliberate in assembling the panel.The bib has beautiful vintage kerchief appliqued to a patchwork bib . The bottom center is the linen like cotton natural that was on the first apron. It has gold fabric on both sides that helps create a lovely silhouette.
The pocket features an appliqued bird from a shear cotton vintage fabric. the bird is almost like stain glass. 
The back panel is yellow and cream and white printed fabric reminiscent of a quilt design.
This apron can tie in the front or behind. I think it is quite a treasure the way the fabrics came together. The vintage pieces are accented and echoed by the new fabrics that I combined with them.
In the summer of 2008, I came on holiday to Sarajevo, the home of my parents and grandparents, and for the first time saw true destruction. The occasional building was in shambles, of course, but truly haunting was the city's people. Fragmented and disturbed by years of war, a yoke of hopelessness burdens the people of BiH in a way one can't understand without seeing it.
Still pondering this despair later at the Sarajevo film festival, I perhaps serendipitously sat in on a talk by Kevin Spacey. Not normally one to be swayed by movie stars, I was surprised when the Usual Suspects star moved me. He said he was glad to see how art could bring people together despite the fact that, less than a decade prior, they had been literally and figuratively torn apart by war. It was then and there that I decided to begin a project of my own, a project designed to bring the people of BiH together with art, if only for a few precious moments.
With the help of some of the best photographers I know, I intend to tour Bosnia and Herzegovina and document her post-war landscape. The photographs and stories we collect will be used to remind other outsiders that even when battlefields fall silent, the scourge of war remains. More than simply documentarians, however, our collective will also serve as young ambassadors. Our project in BiH will not be complete until we give back to the community, holding photography workshops with interested young citizens. The conclusion of their lessons will be the students taking cameras for themselves to explore their world through - pardon the pun - a whole new lens. Their images and ours in tow, we'll then hold gallery shows in New York and Los Angeles and, if luck allows, the war-torn lands of the Middle East. As much as it is a mission to present the dangers of aggression and violence, it's also one designed to highlight the benefits of kindness, compassion and education.
(~ and from Omer )
~The design for this skirt is a hybrid of my summer mini A-line and a skirt I made for Halloween ( I was Velma). I may still change it up a bit.
I made this one to go with my Valentine's date ensemble.
~In The Velma skirt I used the tube part of an old t-shirt for the wide waistband. I just sewed in the tube a bit and folded it over. I would have loved to do that with this skirt but I did not have a t-shirt in the right color...so I made the tube instead.Basically I made a waist cincher that was twice the the height of what I wanted the final height to be. I then folded it over and attached it to the skirt using it as sort of an elastic waistband .
...I used a rolled hem to finish it.
I love the historical references of books; the implications of freedom and equality that are aroused from ones mind when you think of the history of book making and the spread of knowledge to the common folk( my peeps).
...using her as my muse.
I actually decide on the words by writing like 10 or 20 ideas and using a dictionary to help me decide on the words I liked best together.
For my lover I decided to use the title to a song by one of our shared favorite musicians, Allen Toussaint.
2. cut, iron, and attach your back ground fabric.
b. fold in half horizontally and iron
c. fold both ends to meet in the middle creating four fold across 
.... creating a slit in the center.
....pull open 
....and fold your pamphlet
into shape.
shaping it as you go along. 
This book will be whimsical and loose don't worry if all your edges don't match up perfectly, because they will not; you can work that into your design. 
Using pins and your memory, start designing each page.
Now it is time to dig into your creativity and have fun. 
This is when I establish the flow of my text. 
That helps me start working each page individually. Of course you want your book to have continuity. This can be established by using color,
repitition; of shapes and fabric, and stitching lines. The colors, shapes, and fabric choices should start happening now.
The stitching will come later when I deal withthe books final flow. This is also the time I try to give each page an individual look. I can always add elements of continuity on top of these initial design elements.
...and machine. I used stamps, stencils and embroidery to illustrate my text.
I suggest stamping on bits of fabric then attaching that to your book.
This gives you another layer and saves your book from accidents.
Add buttons or other imbellishments that you will be wanting to hide the work in the interior of the book.
I actually sewed around my book several times 
...using the machine to draw some ephemeral lines of continuity throughout my pages. (speaking of machines LOOK!!! at my, new to me, necchi let me just say...whole new world lalalalalaalove it!)
Follow this sequence as you sew your book edges up:
-then iron- next the back pages -iron - 
then work the middle pages taking care to iron and keep the shape of your book all along.
one final shaping with the iron....nice and hot
